The American Economy and the End of Laissez-Faire: 1870 to World War II

8. Regulation and Public Utilities

State dominated cartels used intellectuals as apologists for the government. Big unionism was to transmit orders to the working class. Public utilities were government monopolies for fifty year terms, run without any checks by the public. It is the function of government to run everything. Regulation was rampant, e.g. prohibition. Social workers wanted to abolish the saloons. German brewers were suspect of weakening soldiers. Constitutional amendment outlawed liquor.

Lecture 8 of 13 presented in Fall of 1986 at the New York Polytechnic University.